I wish I could recommend this book for CXC Literature students. The poetry, imagery, and character complexity are just yearning to be analyzed. This is an excellent, pseudo-fictitious account of WWII events. The juxtaposition of thoughts and characters is presented beautifully. Simple writing & complex characters. Melancholic & sensual events. Hitler brutality & English kindness. War & Love through the eyes of an 8-year old Brit. Love. All kinds of love. Parental, mentor, marital, love affairs….I am impressed that this is the first novel by Rosie Alison. What a woman! =)

If your love language is Words of Affirmation, you’ll love this book. There are some love letters written here that will make you all-sorts-of-swoon.

For what it’s worth, I wanted to tell you that I love you. Never before has anyone touched me so deeply – you have changed my life and I cherish everything about you….I have never loved a face more than I love yours, and I see it everywhere. Everything that moves reminds me of you.

I give this book a 5/5. I’ll definitely read again one day. Bella’s Bookshelf is happy for this new addition =)

DE best book I have ever read! Yes, I said “de” instead of “the”. Why? Because my native Caribbean slang allows me to emphasize just how much I loved this book. If you haven’t added this book to your library, do it now. If you haven’t read this book, read it now. It is available in any place that sells / rents / stores books. I am dead serious. Read it. Now.

I cannot post a picture of this book…because…my mom visited me recently, fell in love with the book, and somehow convinced my abso-positively, most favorite book to fly across the Caribbean Sea and live on her bookshelf. Le sigh.

Dr. Gary Chapman is the author of what used to be one of my most prized possessions. If you ever meet him, please tell him I am eternally grateful to him. I’ve applied this book to not only, my relationships, but also to my friends, family members, and coworkers. I am convinced that most relationships / friendships end not because two people are incompatible, but because they do not understand how their spouse / friend loves him / her. In other words, most couples do not speak the same love language.

The 5 love languages are:

1) quality time – You feel most loved when someone gives you his / her undivided attention. No, it’s not just going to eat at a restaurant. It’s when someone does something just because they want to be with you. It’s most likely your love language if you complain that “He/she never spends time with me.”

2) words of affirmation – You feel most loved when someone speaks words of admiration to you. They don’t just compliment you, they breathe life into you with their positivity. You love when they express their gratitude or appreciate something you’ve done.

3) receiving gifts – You feel most loved when someone gives you a gift. When you receive a gift, your heart does somersaults because it communicates that “he / she was thinking about me.” If you tend to complain that “he / she went on a trip and didn’t buy me anything!” then chances are this is your love language.

4) physical touch – You feel most loved when you are hugged or cuddled.

5) acts of service – You feel most loved when someone “shows” you how much they love you. You don’t really care how much someone says he / she loves you. You need them to “show” you. When they wash the car, take out the garbage, cook you dinner, etc. and do these things consistently, you know they love you.

Usually, the way you show your lover / best friend you love him / her is the way you want to be loved. If you complain about something, then your complaints will reveal your love language too. You can take a quick test to learn your love language here. What is yours? Mine is quality time :). Most times though we express love to our friends / spouses how we want to be loved. Unfortunately, if they do not have the same love language as we do, then they may not feel loved. Simply, it would mean you are speaking French while he / she only understands Spanish. It doesn’t mean that you are incompatible. It just means that you have to make an effort to love your friend / parents / spouses / children in the language that they understand. And, teach them how to love you in the language that you understand best.

Today’s Lesson: Just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to, does not mean that they don’t love you with all they have. Love is a choice. Spread some love today!!

Few books have 100,000+ reviews on goodreads.com. To top it off, The Fault in Our Stars had an average rating of 4.4. Obviously, I had to read it.

It is a bittersweet tale of two cancer-stricken teenagers, Hazel and Augustus, who fall in love amidst their battle with metastatic thyroid cancer and osteosarcoma. Given that cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., it is a very believable story, full of heartbreak, anxiety, support groups, hospital visits and grief. But, the story is not completely morbid. There are fleeting moments of laughter, friendship and parent-teenager dynamics that illustrate some normalcy in the lives of Hazel and Augustus.

There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There’s 0.1 and 0.12 and 0.112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities….There are days, many of them, when I resent my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I am likely to get…

Truthfully, this is not the best book that I have read, but I’ll give it 3.7 out of 5 stars. Why?

because there are many quotable quotes.

because I loved how Hazel and Augustus discuss our mortality with an intelligent flair. Only people who accept death as an inevitable part of life can speak so eloquently on the subject.

because only a great writer can make you fall in love with the characters so much that you cry when the inevitable happens.

because few novels force you to live each day as if it were your only day, or as if it were your last day.